I don’t even really know what to say.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but I didn’t sleep a wink last night.
Sadly, that’s not how it works.
Through all the different eras, coaches, rosters, and schemes, one thing remains true.
The Boston Celtics refuse to make life easy on themselves.
It’s one thing to be doing that shit in January.
It’s another when you move into late April and you’re in a playoff series.
Just don’t play dumb a shit, and you win.
They did the complete opposite.
From the best player on down, everyone shit the bed at the worst possible time.
By my count, the Celts are now 0 for 2 in those opportunities in this series.
First Game 3, and now last night.
The more life and confidence you give an opponent, the more risk you take.
The Hawks went from Cancun to back in their own building with all the confidence in the world.
THAT is why last night was so fucked.
Grow the fuck up.
The Good
- In a closeout game, your best players need to step up and end things.
When you’re in these key in of closeout games, your approach is so important.
He led the team with 15 drives and was 7-11 on those drives.
He had 20 points in the paint by himself, which was a career high.
When they needed big shots, Jaylen delivered.
He gave the Celts enough to close out this series, period.
Derrick finished 7-11 (2-5).
Derrick finished with 0 TOs.
Derrick nailed them both.
It’s rather annoying to keep wasting these solid Derrick performances.
Everything we could ask of Derrick, he’s providing.
What Malcolm Brogdon did in that 2nd quarter was exactly why they brought him in.
The second half not so much (1-4, 0-2), but overall?
Brogdon gave this team exactly what you ask from him.
No turnovers, and he led all bench scorers for either team with 14 points.
That should be enough.
- Offensively, the Celts checked a lot of boxes that usually lead to wins.
In the playoffs, if you don’t defend, you die.
In Game 3, I thought the defense was OK, the Hawks just went crazy on contested makes.
That is not what we saw.
The Hawks finished 14-26 on those shots (53.8%).
Another 11 were deemed “open”, but ATL shot just 3-11 on those.
How many times did we see a Hawks player take a 3PA with absolutely zero contests?
I’m not talking about the Trae 30 foot bombs either.
Obviously, those are going to be open.
Hunter/Collins/Bey/Bogdanovic finished 12-23 from deep, and I would bet nearly zero of them were strongly contested.
That’s just energy and effort.
How bad has the Celtics defense been in both of these loses?
They allowed another 17 2nd chance points in this game, something that has plagued them the entire series.
How many more games do they have to lose before they figure that shit out?
- When the Celts are at their best, they play fast.
They get out on the break and play with pace.
We saw it with Brad, we saw it with Ime, and we see it with Joe.
In fact, they had only 4 fastbreak points the entire second half!
To me, this is mostly a Tatum issue.
Every single time the Celts have a lead and they shift to Point Tatum, things slow down.
It almost never works.
White, Smart, Brogdon, I don’t give a shit, just pick one!
You don’t do that shit with 6 minutes left, you do that with like 2 minutes left.
That’s Day 1 stuff.
- I’m asked sometimes why I obsess so much about FTs.
Well, last night shows why.
Make your FTs, you win the game.
It’s that simple.
You know who did?
They went 10-10 including a perfect 5-5 in the 4th quarter.
- Al Horford did a lot of things well in this game.
What I do not understand is why he was so afraid to shoot the ball?
Al, I am begging you.
Take the hook shot.
you’ve got the option to do it!
Defensively Al has been great shit series, but they need something from him offensively.
Just 11 points on 4-14 (3-11) these past 3 games, that’s not good enough.
He can’t be passing up point blank looks at this point.
In Game 4, we saw Tatum be aggressive, and he finished 11-12 from the FT line.
In the 4th quarter while things were getting tight, what did we see?
Two FGA, none in the paint.
In no world is that acceptable.
Now maybe you’ll say"well Greenie, he was doubled!
“Which is true.
But this is the problem with Tatum’s lack of aggression.
He just waited around for that double to come.
There was no quick decisions, there was no aggressive approach.
His brutal 4th quarter TO is a perfect example of that
Why not utilize your dribble in that spot?
It’s fucking Bogan Bogdanovic in front of you with Trae on the strong side.
Make a strong move and either get to the rim or hit Al in the corner.
Instead, Tatum just stood there and allowed that double to come.
He’s shooting just 39/26% during this span with 3.0 TOs a game.
He has to be able to change things up based on what is or isn’t working.
All game Smart had been pretty solid.
He was 4-8 from the floor and didn’t have a turnover.
But then he checked in at 3:26, and everything went to hell.
Just some of the most braindead mistakes you’ll ever see.
Sadly, we weren’t done.
If you’re going to set a pick, you better be DAMN sure you’re set and stationary.
Is it maybe a bullshit call in that spot?
Maybe, but don’t even put yourself in that position.
Sadly, we weren’t done.
It’s a huge play.
I just don’t think the reward outweighs the risk, especially when you are in the bonus.
Again, even if you think this was maybe a soft call, I’m not sure that matters.
Just play defense straight up for one possession.
When you leave things up to the official’s discretion, you’re asking for trouble.
There was no need for it.
Again, if he gets that steal we all love it, myself especially.
But I just don’t love gambling in that spot when you don’t need to.
It’s not like the Celts were down and needed a steal, they just needed a stop.
The decision wasn’t bad, the execution was.
That’s not really a coaching issue, that’s a player execution issue.
- Why Jaylen gave Young so much space on that game winner I’ll never understand.
Everyone on the planet knew he was going for the stepback game winner.
Credit to him for making it but man, that was bad.
And so now here we are.
That is so fucking annoying, and so very Celtics.
We’ve seen them respond before, so now it’s time to do it again.
